Hortonworks Expands Big Data Ecosystem Into Microsoft Windows Arena

Hortonworks is shipping a Windows edition of its big data platform, a move channel partners say will help them meet customer demands for Windows-based big data applications.

Until now, Hortonworks' software, based on the open-source Apache Hadoop big data platform, has only supported various distributions of Linux.

But Hortonworks and Microsoft, through a partnership established in 2011, have been working to bring Hadoop into the Windows market. Microsoft, with assistance from Hortonworks, developed implementations of Hadoop that run on Windows Server and Windows Azure, called HDInsight, that are currently available only as public test builds.

The new Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) for Windows, available as a beta release since February, is now generally available for download. Using the platform, the vendor said, businesses can run Hadoop-based applications natively on either Windows or Linux with a common user interface and interoperability across the operating systems.

"This is a great move toward enhancing the big data ecosystem," said Anand Raman, vice president of business development at Impetus, a San Jose, Calif.-based solution provider that partners with Hortonworks. "We have had customers request 100 percent open source Apache Hadoop running on Windows, and this general-availability release enables Impetus to architect and implement a secure, reliable, enterprise-ready Hadoop platform for enterprises across verticals."

Hortonworks said there was strong interest in the early release from customers in the automotive, manufacturing and financial services industries, and from government entities.

"We expect a massive expansion of the Hadoop ecosystem and rapid adoption of HDP for Windows by enterprises that use Windows," said Shaun Connolly, Hortonworks vice president of corporate strategy, in a statement.

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